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Men are increasingly turning to virtual assistants to have sexually explicit conversations, it has been claimed.

Some teenagers and "truckers" who do not have partners are also developing feelings for female and male-voiced chatbots such as Siri, one expert said.

This happens because people are lonely and bored.... It is a symptom of our societyIlya Eckstein

Ilya Eckstein, the chief executive of Robin Labs, said his company's virtual assistant - Robin - was used by some men for up to 300 conversations a day.

He told The Times it was "mostly teenagers and truckers without girlfriends" who were turning to the virtual world.

"This happens because people are lonely and bored.... It is a symptom of our society," he said. "As well as the people who want to talk dirty, there are men who want a deeper sort of relationship or companionship."

He added to Quartz that people who use engage with their virtual assistants in such a way "want to flirt, they want to dream about a subservient girlfriend, or even a sexual slave".

The film Her tells the tale of a lonely writer who becomes obsessed with his chatbot, voiced by Scarlett Johansson Credit:
Kevin Winter

Virtual assistants - such as the iPhone's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana - are included on smartphones and computers to make life easier, allowing users to issue commands, such as "call mum", or easily search for nearby facilities such as restaurants and petrol stations.

But Eckstein believes five per cent of interactions with his company's chatbot are now sexually explicit. He also claims a third of conversations take place for no particular reason, with many users just wanting to chat.

Deborah Harrison, a writer for Microsoft's Cortana, told the Virtual Assistant Summit earlier this year that "a good chunk of the volume of early-on inquiries" were about the chatbot's sex life.

The issue has inspired films such as Her, which was released in 2013 and tells the tale of a lonely writer, who becomes obsessed with his operating system's virtual assistant, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.